Hands Down

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Nothing really appealed and I am not into horse racing, but I found a copy of Whip Hand and started reading. Can Sid get to the bottom of what’s going on before he too becomes a victim, while, at the same time, saving his marriage?

Felix does a good job in these last two Sid novels, and they make for lots of deductive meanderings, nerve-wracking thrills and fishing for clues while steering clear of the red herrings—but I do miss his Dad. Having Sid Halley back was so welcome, for the rest the author has a knack for making his characters believable and down to earth, even though you don’t know them there is a familiarity to them, you can relate to each. Watching the news the following day, he sees that Bremner’s horse barn has gone up in flames, and several horses have been killed, including, perhaps, Bremner.An ex jockey friend Gary Bremner contacts Sid and begs him to drive to his stables as he feels his life is in danger, but Sid tells him he can’t that if he needs him he should drive to him. I understand I can change my preference through my account settings or unsubscribe directly from any marketing communications at any time. After the death of the elder Francis, his protege and youngest son Felix took over primary writing duties and continued the legacy with respectable verisimilitude.

Hands Down is pure storytelling, wonderfully written, which had me hooked from the opening pages, it is a read which you need to know what is going to happen next and in which direction is the author going to take.However, the very next morning, the friend’s stable yard is torched, horses killed, and then the friend is found dead. I would have enjoyed this last of the Sid Halley series more if the actual crime involved hadn’t been so similar to that of the previous book—Refusal—which I had just barely finished. I decided to make reading her entire collection a part of my reading challenge for the next couple of years (she has a HUGE collection), as well as a way to pay tribute to my mum, who was such a voracious reader.

However, the very next morning, Gary's stable yard is torched, horses killed, and Gary has disappeared. Hands Down is pure storytelling, wonderfully written, which had me hooked from the opening pages, it is a read which you need to know what is going to happen next and in which direction is the author going to take you. What Sid discovers is that it is one agent in particular responsible for the fraud, and he brings in Chico Barnes to help after he had been threatened. There are all too many naive and clueless gents (they *are* all guys) in both groups who either are in financial straits or have been indecorous with questionable female acquaintances. For over forty years, the London University grad helped father Dick Francis (31 Oct 1920 – 14 Feb 2010), ex-jockey known for horse-racing mysteries.And he's married to his beloved Marina and has a nine-year-old daughter named Saskia who is the center of his existence. What racing did show up was dispiritedly about the intricacies of betting, not the excitement and pride of the sport. Dick Francis novels were a familiar fixture in our household when I was growing up, as both my parents loved his books. For me this is a definite ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ read, if you like your crimes fast paced then grab a copy of this. Someone is finding a way to rig horse races for their own financial gain and are blackmailing both jockeys and trainers to further their plot.

Instead he landed in the private investigation business, in hot pursuit of the miscreants of the British horse racing world that he can’t stop being a part of. Here is what I think--the son is getting better, and maybe his handicap is more that what is acceptable in 2020 is really different from what worked in 1970. This is one of the better crime stories by Felix Francis using his late father's characters, particularly Sid Halley and Chico Barnes. Started reading the British racehorse mysteries by father Dick Francis as a young adult in the 1980’s.Sid demands the guy back down or he’ll pass all of the information he’s collected to the police and to the British racing authority. The first three were written by Dick Francis, but after a long life and very prolific writing career, he rode off into the sunset. When his friend turns up dead, apparently by suicide, then he can't resist the urge to investigate, assisted once again by Chicco. I've not read another novel, where the intrepid investigator has had a hand transplant so I'll note I learned a few things about that along the path to a solution to what happened to Sid's friend Gary.